Sheet metal corrugated members or panels are an essential component used to form low-rise metal buildings. An endless variety of low-rise metal buildings exist throughout the world. In today's metal buildings, corrugated panels are placed over basic frameworks of posts and beams. The corrugated panels are connected together at their meeting points by the use of non-structural closures, covers and seals to allow the buildings to serve a useful function. Attempts to weld corrugated members together at their meeting points in buildings does not work because the thin gage, high strength panels suffer a great loss of strength when heated and the extreme heat of welding causes serious deformations in the thin sheet stock. Welding such panel junctures is not amenable to these buildings because such extensive welding and inspection at a building site have not been deemed feasible. Further, the extreme heat of welding greatly reduces the strength and causes serious deformation of thin panels used in metal buildings. Furthermore, if other materials, such as a high strength plastic, or the like are used in constructing such buildings, welding is also not feasible.
When two similar structural members meet at a juncture, the ideal connection should allow the total internal forces in each element to be transferred to its adjoining member element without redistribution of the internal stresses in the member. As described above, this transfer may be referred to as Total Load Connectivity or TLC. When metal corrugated panels meet at a juncture, currently no method exists to achieve TLC joints other than welding. Welding of corrugated panels in low-rise metal building has been found not to be feasible, as discussed above. The low-rise metal building industry has found ways to work around the concept of TLC at the joints by the use of an initial framework of columns and beams, thus having accepted far less than ideal TLC connections. Yet countless useful buildings exist throughout the world.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for an improved method and system for forming buildings, made from corrugated metal, plastic or other available materials, which are frameless, but which have TLC joints for improved strength that allows them to be either pre-formed in selected configurations and shipped to a site for easy assembly; and/or easily assembled on-site by use of specifically formed cyclically repetitive edge members that exactly conform to the shape of the corrugated panels being used. Additionally, one important consideration that also has to be taken into account has to do with shipment size. To avoid complex shipping constraints, a preferred concept will limit the physical size of a shipment from a factory to a building site. The intermodal shipping container industry has determined that a typical large box size of 8′×8′×40′ is amenable to their several modes of transport. The same size limitation will most probably be used for this new frameless building factory subassembly for shipment to a building site, as well.